Vice President JD Vance announced on Monday that 870,000 people will be permanently prevented from applying for federal loans amid allegations they previously defrauded the government through the COVID-19 pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program.
Vance made the announcement during a press conference at an FBI field office in Kansas City, Missouri. The Paycheck Protection Program was created by President Donald Trump in 2020 to help small businesses keep workers on their respective payrolls during the pandemic.
“Well, we think it makes sense that if you were caught stealing from the American taxpayer, you shouldn’t be able to benefit from these loans anymore,” the vice president told reporters. “So we’re going to suspend about 870,000 people from being able to access these funds in the future and from being able to borrow money from the American taxpayer.
“If you screwed the American taxpayer, the federal government is now going to say, ‘You’re cut off. No more,’” he said. “You shouldn’t be applying anymore, and if you do apply, you’re no longer able to get those benefits. Pretty common sense.”
Vance also announced that the Small Business Administration and Justice Department would be prosecuting the alleged fraudsters, with 90 prosecutorial decisions made so far.
“This should have been done earlier,” he said. “It’s kind of ridiculous that so much of the fraud that we saw under the PPP program wasn’t actually enforced, wasn’t taken seriously by congressional Democrats, or the Biden administration. So what we’ve done here is say that no fraud is too small.”
Vance argued that American taxpayers have “every right to expect that when they write the check to the IRS, when they write a check to the federal government, that money is going to go where the law says that it should go, and not defrauders.”
“We want to protect your money,” he said. “We want to ensure that your generosity goes to the legally entitled recipients and not to fraudsters.”
Vance, who is also scheduled to attend a campaign event for Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) later Monday in nearby Kansas, closed with a message to voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.
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“If you’re looking to cast a ballot in November for somebody who’s going to protect your taxpayer dollars and ensure that the food stamp program actually goes to young families, who ensures that the Medicaid program actually ensures that our low-income children have access to a doctor, who ensure that our Small Business Administration goes to upstart companies, not to fraudsters, then you need to think seriously about why congressional Democrats have refused to help us at every step of the way,” he said.